Paloma Valenzuela
Instructor Consultant
About Paloma
Paloma Valenzuela is a Dominican-American writer, director and actress originally from the city of Boston. She studied Writing for Film and Television at Emerson College and graduated in 2009. After graduating from Emerson she moved to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to work on developing projects in film and television including working as Second AD for the television show "Juanita's Gran Salon y Spa". In 2010 she started La Gringa Loca Productions, a multi-media production operation which has since produced three stage plays both in Boston and the Dominican Republic: "RANT!" (2008), "Show Up" (2012), and "Queseyocuanto" (2012), a 60 Min. Narrative Film "Saturday" (2010), two promotional videos for Miss Rizos "Lecciones en La Calle" (2011), a Documentary Web Series, "Onomatopeyas Dominicanas" (2013-2014), an official commercial for Miss Rizos Salón in Santo Domingo (2015 and 2016), a comedic web series “The Pineapple Diaries” (2015-2016). In 2016 Paloma was the recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts Creative City Grant. With this grant she produced, through La Gringa Loca Productions, season two of "The Pineapple Diaries". Episode 17 "Pero Mi Cédula No" of season one won the Special Jury Prize at the International Festival of Santo Domingo Mujeres en Cortos 2016. The Episode "Brunch" from "The Pineapple Diaries" was Official Selection at the Roxbury International Film Festival 2017. The Episode "Untitled" was Official Selection at the Latino Short Film Festival 2017, Official Selection at the Howard University Film Festival 2018, Finalist at the Rolda Webfest 2018, Official Selection at the Providence Latin American Film Festival 2018 and Official Selection at the New Orleans Film Festival 2018. Paloma continues to produce and direct for various projects through La Gringa Loca Productions including the Official Music video for Dominican artist AcentOh for his song “2020” and a promotional video for Write Boston’s Teens in Print Program. She plays the role of Lolita in the upcoming Dominican coming-of-age comedy, "Un 4to de Josue" set to premiere in October of 2018. Paloma has worked as Second AD for three Dominican feature films and is currently in Boston touring "The Pineapple Diaries" Monologue Writing Workshop. Paloma has been awarded as one of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Creative Luminaries of 2018-2019. She is very excited to be joining GrubStreet as a Teaching Artist!